Below is the first part of NCM's lengthy interview with John Armstrong-Holmes. In this section, Notts County's chairman speaks about what happened with Colin Hancock, Adam Pearson, what it would take for the club to hand over its shares, and the club's current financial position...
NCM: Colin Hancock looks set to take over at Mansfield Town. Why did this never happen with Notts County? 
JAH: What happened was that Hancock rang up Radio Nottingham and spoke to Colin Slater in January and what he actually said then was that he was interested in investing a seven-figure sum. I was really angry that such a thing went on air, I'll be honest with you about that, because it's not the correct way to go about business.
I rang Hancock up the next day, because I had his number, and likewise he had mine, because I've known Colin Hancock for a number of years, due to his involvement loosely with the football club. He couldn't talk to me because he was arranging a funeral and said he'd be in contact with me within a couple of weeks.
The next contact I had was from his solicitor, who wrote me a letter, and in that letter he made reference to the fact he represented Colin Hancock and that he would be free after January 30 to meet with me and the board of directors.
I wrote back saying we'd like confirmation of what Colin Hancock was proposing for this football club and we need to see proof of funds related to those proposals. This went on for about a month, throughout the whole of February - letters backwards and forwards between me and Colin Hancock's solicitor.
I offered to take up a board meeting proposal on March 7 this year which was there and said that I would be happy to meet with him beforehand. Nothing was forthcoming on that.
I then got a letter on March 3 from his solicitor which said (reads from letter): 'My client wishes to make it clear at the outset that he has never made a public declaration of his interest in the media.'
Now, the fact that he went on Radio Nottingham in January and talked about investing a seven-figure sum in Notts County Football Club. Then I get a letter from his solicitor denying that he ever made such a declaration of interest in the media - what are we actually dealing with?
What else can I say? I get a letter from his lawyer denying that he ever made such an offer, then he tried to turn it round and say: 'If I had a million pounds'. He didn't say 'if I had a million pounds' [on the radio], he led the Nottingham public to believe and Colin Slater to believe that he was prepared to invest a seven-figure sum. It could have been one million, two million, three million, whatever...
The quite proper course to make a proposal to any business, no matter what it is, is you don't discuss it with the public - you make a proposition to the board of directors. The board of directors consider that proposition. If the directors consider that advantageous to the company, they have a fiduciary duty to present that to all shareholders.
NCM: So the club actively pursued Hancock?
JAH: Of course we did! This correspondence went on for two months, you know, we offered to meet him - nothing, asked them to give us dates - nothing. All we got back were letters from his solicitor, to which we replied. He never ever came forward with any dates.
Never at any time has there been any real confirmation of any financial investment in Notts County Football Club, nor what he was proposing. Now he was leading supporters to believe that the club was on its knees, that it was broke, it was going out of business. Where's that coming from?
Once you start putting these things into the public domain, then people naturally, because they don't know all the circumstances, they're going to be very concerned about it. I can understand that. Me, if I wasn't sitting where I sit now, and I heard that, I'd be saying 'what the hell is going on?' I've got no problems with that, but the problem is that there are people out there that have an agenda. They are very anti-Trust.
It's damaging to this football club. That broadcast that went out in January was very damaging to this football club and it probably cost us hundreds of supporters coming to the games.
The Trust are fans, the Trust aren't morons. Members of this board are business people. Some members of this board I would rather have sitting beside me as the board of directors of the football club than half the people involved in football.
If you're a director of the club, you have a duty to every single shareholder of the company. Never at any time was there a proposal, or anything. All that took place after he went public with this was that his lawyer dealt with everything.
We offered to meet with him, but nothing was ever forthcoming and ultimately I got from him saying he was going to focus his activities elsewhere.
NCM: Is the club financially comfortable then?
JAH: The club is financially stable. We're not rich - we haven't got shed loads of money or anything like that, but it's secure. The club is probably more secure than at any time I have ever known this football club, and I have been coming here since 1955.
NCM: Will we turn over a profit then?
JAH: At the minute we will probably make a small loss at the end of this financial year, but it's a manageable situation. If you consider what we've been through over the last season, the main priority was the security of our league status. Just imagine, had we not secured that position. It would have been cataclysmic to this football club to have got relegated.
On one hand I had my heart and the other I had to have my business head, and I had to balance the two. We had to give all the help to Charlie possible. He came in to probably one of the toughest jobs in football, didn't have a lot to work with, and did what was necessary to ensure we stayed in the league.
It might have been a close call, but at the end of the day we were six-points clear. It was actually more comfortable than you think; it just took us a while to get there.
NCM: What happened with Adam Pearson?
JAH: First of all, I wasn't here when Adam Pearson came in. Had I have been, I'm sure I would have said exactly the same things as what my colleagues on the Trust board told me. And I know it's true because I spoke to every one of them on different occasions.
There was contact between Pearson and the Trust. Members of the trust board had a meeting with Adam Pearson. There was never an offer.
What people don't seem to understand is that Notts County is not sexy. People who come into football these days are looking for a return on their money. They want to actually profit out of what they put into the football club.
The days of benefactors like Haydn Green was, have gone - they are so rare. I mean, if you think when this club was in administration, we were within 20 minutes of ceasing to exist. I know, I was at those meetings.
If it hadn't been for Haydn Green, this club would not be here today. Now that is a real benefactor. He actually didn't want anything for himself; he wasn't looking for personal gain. He was looking to save Notts County Football Club for the benefit of generations and generations of supporters. Now that is a real, real supporter.
People like Adam Pearson, they come along every so often. He went to Hull and did very nicely out of it didn't he? He did very nicely out of Derby didn't he? I believe he sold half his shares for the amount he paid for all of them, whilst still maintaining half his shares.
NCM: So, what would it take for the club to relinquish its shares?
JAH: Now, what people don't seem to understand is, there is a vehicle here, Notts County Football Club, it's called Blenheim 1862 Limited - that is the whole of the company. Within that there are four shareholders. One is the Trust, which controls approximately 60 percent, two is the vice-chairman, Roy Parker, who controls approximately 20 percent, three is John Mountenay, who controls approximately ten percent, four is Peter Joyce, who controls another ten percent. So that's your hundred percent.
No shareholder of the company can relinquish any shares. They first of all have to be offered to all the other shareholders. All the shareholders have to agree what to do with those shares if an offer comes in. You cannot say we're just going to sell our shares, there's a shareholders' agreement that prevents that.
That's why the procedure is that you have to come to the board. If an offer came forward that was perceived to be in the best interests of the football club, then it's presented to the shareholders.
Now, I'm a member of the Trust board - I'm very proud to be a member of the Trust board. If an offer came forward to Notts County Football Club's board, and it was perceived to be in the best interests of the club, that would automatically go to the shareholders.
In the first place it would go to the Notts County Supporters' Trust board. They would then have to put that to their membership, just in the same way as the Supporters' Trust put to their membership the acquisition of the controlling interests, which I might add, they unanimously accepted to take control of this football club.
Part two coming shortly...